Hello Friends, I’m taking a moment to prepare this post which is the first since mid May – I haven’t had time to write ANYTHING, and even know I should be outside manning the garden hoses!

Finland is experiencing a DROUGHT! No rain in a very long time with extremely HOT record-breaking temperatures, long sun-filled days. Take a look at the crazy Finnish weather here.

You can imagine we’ve been concerned about maintaining our newly acquired trees & plants with enough moisture to survive; hopefully our efforts will be enough. So far so good.

My daily routine consists of manning garden hoses to get water to as many areas within each zone as I can each day. Picking up where I left off the previous day, working backwards usually stopping midday to start in on the other half of the garden, doing exactly the same within the range of that hose. It’s become a much harder job as our garden has grown. Not just because there are more items to water, but because now there are so many obstructions and objects the hose easily gets caught up on something while working to the furthest points which forces you to have to go back, straighten it all out, and of course there are tender items which need extra care to avoid damage. We do not have an irrigation system, I doubt ANYONE in Finland has one. Our usual rainfall in June is MUCH! It’s typical for June to be extremely wet & cool. But not THIS year! Record-breaking heat and NO rain. CRAZY!!!

As you can imagine, farmers throughout Finland are very concerned, as many crops such as wheat and barley are literally withering in the fields, stunted by lack of rain. Soil conditions are heavily PARCHED. See here. Experts predict a yield 1/5 of the norm due to the drought.

We hesitated momentarily about acquiring more items at the Tahvoset open day event, but of course we expected June to come through like it always does and rain like every other year. Not so!

I wanted to give you an idea how large Tahvoset is, and they have a lovely website which I linked in the last post. Here is a great video they prepared which shows their entire operation. For those of you who are more involved with the wholesale & distribution of plants, the techniques are mostly universal – but it might be informative to see how another country is doing things! 🙂 You’ll easily be able to keep up with what is shown despite the video language being in Finnish. Please don’t let that deter you from viewing.

We enjoyed the open day and there was a great turnout. We loaded up one large trolley cart and a wheelbarrow with new items, which we then immediately planted once we returned home that day.

And here is where some of the items went once they got home!

I hadn’t seen this HORTENSIA ‘Hydrangea Macrophylla Bailday’ variety before – I really like it and think it will look especially lovely with the blue spruce conifer in this planting arrangement. These are some of the large stones Pekka and I have been ‘harvesting’ from a discarded pile of field stones on the edge of our property. For over half a century, this pile of rocks had all but been forgotten, until we happened upon it. Aside from the usual small size rocks, there were some very large rocks weighing several hundred pounds. We’ll get the bed edges sorted out and cover up that white weed barrier fabric at some point! I really love my new Stihl Kombi tool with the edger attachment!! Luckily it speeds up the job of edging our *current* 22 beds!

The cellarway step project has been completed. Pekka constructed a safe and practical step solution to a very awkward and steep cellarway problem!

BEFORE

AFTER

After a long day of hauling stones, pulling weeds and preparing a bed – it’s time to relax!

Lots of various blooms and color throughout the garden. Here are some of our favorites.

With nearly 370 trees and bushes including 75 roses, there are an additional 140 different flowering plant items of all types; bulb, tuber & perennial growing now at Vanha Talo Suomi – you should probably take a look at our specimen list! It’s updated and includes ALL our present items. We’ve also added a Memorial Tree page – have a look. Click on the BLUE links to open the linked pages.

With Juhannus Day just around the corner, literally this weekend, we’d normally be kidding each other about it being a rain out, and being somewhat put out that Mother Nature didn’t see fit to give us a nice dry day to enjoy the biggest Finnish celebration of the summer. This year though, EVERYONE is hoping for a rain out that lasts about a week!!

All the best to you! We hope you’re getting your fair share of sunny fun-filled days and a raindrop from time to time too 🙂

39!! wow. I think Pekka would keel over in that kind of heat!
Thanks for the extra luck – we’ll probably need all we can get 🙂
Our garden is still in its infancy – lots of patience required-it will take several years for some items to come into their own. Noticeable changes are happening though. More so maybe for people who only see the gardens infrequently. Thanks, and happy summer to you 🙂

Super hot and no rain for weeks here in Texas also. Probably a bit more expected here! Starting today a big storm is supposedly rolling in, so we may get a short break from our watering, which is absolutely nothing compared with the job you have! Your yard looks amazing; I remain beyond impressed with Pekka’s and your energy levels in creating and maintaining that outdoor paradise.

I hope the storm you were expecting brings some relief and no damage. Not a fan of high wind after several years living in a hurricane zone
Thank you for the kind words. Not sure how we manage. We just do things every day, it seems we do accomplish a lot by staying active out there on a daily basis. Once trees establish and become viable on their own without assistance from me watering, we’ll have a lot more flexibility & free time. 😉
Thank you and happy summer to you!!

You and Pekka both deserve that hammock rest! Your new garden bed looks fabulous. I am agog at the Tahvoset operation. Thanks so much for including the video. I can’t believe how easy they make propagation look.

All the best with keeping the garden watered during this time of drought. That’s one of my biggest challenges, too. I don’t have nearly as many plants and trees as you , but the heat makes it difficult to stand outside and get it done. And lets not even talk about the weeds, ugh!

Thank you!
I’m glad the video was helpful & you enjoyed it. I was surprised the first time I saw it, I really had no idea Tahvoset was such a large operation. And really didn’t understand all the parts of their growing program. It’s impressive.
I hope the heat where you are doesn’t stop you from enjoying the out-of-doors- We love being outside doing things. I have a much higher heat tolerance than Pekka – he wouldn’t enjoy being in 90-degree Fahrenheit temps!! 😀
Knowing I would never be able to keep up weeding if we had exposed dirt beds, we reverted to mulching all our beds except for a couple. The mulch has really been effective in reducing weeds. it’s about 50/50 for beds that have a weed barrier fabric under the mulch. Mostly because the beds that have the fabric is because that dirt was brought in and not native to the homesite. The original dirt has only mulch and we have nearly no weeds in those areas. The dirt brought in was necessary to grade the property after excavation for the drainage system around the house. That dirt seems to be nothing but weed infested so we added weed barrier fabric under the mulch as an extra safeguard. The quality of the fabric makes a profound difference on weed prevention! 😉 Our experience: Commerical Grade is the BEST choice. Don’t skimp or you’ll regret it. In some cases, cheaper fabric that we have purchased has proven to be almost worthless in preventing weeds. SO- requires LOTS more mulch! UGH!
Here’s to a happy summer! 😉 and Thank you again!

Thank you. We just do what we do, and since we’ve now been doing it for a while it seems pretty normal to us. I do think it would overwhelm a few people 😉
Hopefully, the rain gods will find us and we can get that sorted!
Have a nice summer!

Hello,
It’s rained twice since then. Unusually dry with extremely hot weather, all summer long. Hot in the Arctic too. No relief in sight.
We are nearly ready for Sunday’s open garden day. Still a few last minute tasks we hope to have done.
We’re going to Latvia the following week for a well-earned break. This gardening season has been extraordinarily demanding.
Thanks for your interest.
Kate